June 21, 2008: Initial Thoughts

hey hey hey :)

just a quick message to tell you that i miss you very much and wish you were here!! its been fun here, aside from being so tired every night that i don't socialize at all (i can just see comments formulating in deniz's mind). either way, i have been going to bed at around 10pm and waking up at 7am (all of you that have lived with me can't believe that, i know, but its true). either way, there's no coffee within easy access, but i am forever on the hunt. i know that there is a starbucks (xi ba ke if you will) nearby, but i haven't had any time to myself yet. we have been going on structured tours and stuff but by god i will have an iced latte within the next 24 hours if its the last thing i do.

the people on my program are cool so far -- the girls are very nice, and so are the boys for the most part...but there are about 3...what's a good word...ah, broskis. Literally every morning "dude I was so blackout last night, no man, you have no idea, total blackout, I did so many shots…" and I am just ITCHING to let a "you're SO bad" fly, but perhaps its too soon. The main culprit, while blackout, also told me that he thought that British men had the worst style in the world. It was funny to me, because he was wearing sperrys AND madras all at the same time. I said that I thought they had rather good style, and he said like what so I said nicely cut jeans, blazers, and – "blazers? We always wear blazers where I'm from. Like COLOR COORDINATED blazers! Fuck that man, we always wear that." Yeah because you dress like you are in a ralph lauren commercial. Either way, I informed Lord Suter-Whaley and he said that this kid could "kiss my shiny metal ass". I'm debating whether to pass that on.

we had to take a placement exam yesterday for our chinese class and i must say...not my best work. the kid next to me who is a native speaker kept looking over my shoulder, saying "that's wrong" at my grammar multiple choice answers and then i had to write a paragraph about "my love sport". uhm...what? so of course all the guys in the group were snickering, and i literally wrote. "i like soccer. i like to watch soccer on television. americans don't like soccer, it is not on television. i am not happy." 1) i understand the complete lack of sense of the second and third sentence. 2) i somehow got placed in the highest level of chinese of our group with the native speaker and the PIKE. i am totally fucked.

nothing much to really talk about thus far. i'm bad at these type of emails...i'm uploading pictures to and they'll probably tell a better story than i can. we've been to a bunch of parks and tiananmen square, and saw the olympic "birds nest" stadium -- where the opening ceremonies will be held. today was the first day we actually saw the sky. normally, the sky is this weird gray-green color, i shit you not. its a bad combination of smog/pollution and dust. we were really excited when we stepped outside because the sky was blue...but little did we know that meant that the sun could shine. it is SO FUCKING HOT. i've been chugging water like nobody's business. the funny thing about china is that beer is cheaper than water in some places. unfortunately for me, i'm ASIAN. therefore, drinking makes me hot, red in the face, and tired. so much for a "cold refreshing beer". i should come back when i'm NOT asian (that was for you, deniz and ammar).

i told chairman mao "not now!" today, it was awesome.